“The only copy of your manuscript is stolen from your car. Articles and stories come back with unfailing rejection…Finances grow ever more perilous. This is, with variations, the script for the first ten or fifteen years of many successful writers’ careers. But they hung on.” This quote comes from one of my favorite book of […]
writing challenges
Accountability Challenge for October and November
I’ve enjoyed our writing challenges in the past few years, and I’ve decided to do two of them this fall. The first one runs from October 1 to October 31. The second one is during NaNoWriMo, the frenzied writing month of November. You can sign up (at the end) for either challenge or both. I need the accountability myself, and […]
The Completion Stage
The past two weeks, I’ve talked about the stages we go through in our writing projects, including the challenges at each stage and ways to keep from derailing. After we have prepared the work-in-progress, let it germinate, worked on it, then deepened and shaped it, we are ready to complete the work. “There is a completion […]
Germination Phase
[Read about the first phase here: preparing to write.] The second stage, called the germination stage by Louise De Salvo Ph.D. in Writing as a Way of Healing, is a time “during which we gather and work on fragments of ideas, images, phrases, scenes, moments, lines, possibilities for plots, characters, settings. Sometimes we don’t quite […]
Preparing to Write
In Writing as a Way of Healing, author Louise De Salvo, Ph.D. delineates seven different stages of the creative process—and warns how we can derail our entire writing process with certain behaviors at each stage. “For our writing to be healing,” Louise says, “it’s important for us to understand that there are different stages of […]
Shorter Focus = Successful Writing
I read a very surprising study recently on the differences between marathon runners who finished the race and those who didn’t. All the runners were equally fit and trained and healthy. So what was the deciding factor in whether they were hardy enough to finish the 26-mile run? It depended on where they placed their […]
Writing Through Interruptions
I began writing when I had a newborn (ten days old), a todder (two) and a preschooler. If I couldn’t write through interruptions, I couldn’t write at all most days. People protest all the time that they can’t write with continual interruptions, and I never had much of a response beyond “just do it!” I knew […]
Writing During Summer Travels
Summer is just around the corner. And for many writers, that means traveling to see family and taking vacations while trying to meet deadlines. Consistent writing may be a necessity during the summer. Can writing and traveling co-exist? Yes, quite happily, but only if you think and plan ahead. Paved with Good Intentions We may […]
Writing after Major Losses
After I’d been publishing for a number of years, I had an eight-year period where major personal and professional losses piled on each other. During this time, I had four surgeries in thirteen months and took on extra work to pay medical bills. Our teenage adopted child was having severe emotional problems, I went through […]
Writing Through Relationship Struggles
Do these scenarios sound at all familiar? (They all happened to writers I know.) You’re writing your first picture book, but your husband is jealous of your time at the typewriter and won’t speak to you at supper. (I know this sounds childish, but it happens fairly often.) Or your wife reads your book and […]